Text Charity
Listening to a discussion on the radio this morning it emerged that donating to charities using text on your mobile is not a very good way of doing things in this country. I don’t know how it works elsewhere but it seems that if you donate £1.50 to a charity using this method here they will probably only see £1.00 of it. So where did the other 50 pence go?
Well there are obviously costs involved with such a transaction. With mobile operators being mostly trans-national they must get millions of these transactions so I wouldn’t suggest that they be free else these companies are going to find themselves in financial difficulties, but I would suggest that they be non-profit making.
The thing that really annoyed me though was that our grubby little Chancellor gets his filthy mitts on about 23 pence of it. What? Charitable donations by text are taxable? Yes is the short answer. This is just totally unacceptable! Millions of pounds are donated to charities in this country using the texting method. It is predominantly the favoured method of younger people ie under 35. It tends to be an impulse donation. They see something on TV, in the papers, on an advertisement and think, “Yes I want some of that” and text a donation.
I wonder how many millions of pounds have found their way into the Chancellor’s secret coffers that should have gone to charities. I mean, you assume that a donation is tax-free don’t you? Well think again. I don’t want people to stop using this method to donate. I want our grubby little Chancellor
to keep his thieving little mitts off it!
Comments ( 5 )
Most charitable organizations have some overhead, but they’re generally considered very good if more than 80% of the money actually supports the work of the charity.
MSF/DWB is one of the best, with 87% going toward relief.
I hope none of it is taxable. =/